Happy Birthday, my son

1 year. An eternity and a blink of an eye, all at the same time. Last year, 11 days seemed like an eternity. Your due date came, yet you made us wait 11 more long days to finally to meet you. And now, we've just had the best year of our lives and we barely even remember that wait (just barely. . . a mama never really completely forgets it!).

You bring us so much joy and we've experienced the greatest love ever, a love that grows bigger and bigger every day.

You are our pride, our joy, our love. The world is yours. We cherish the memories and love you've given us and we eagerly anticipate all the joyous moments that await. Happy first Birthday, Hayden!

Mama works hard, too

When I post pictures from our mountain adventures, you always see Rich doing the hard work of towing Hayden. I now have some photographic evidence that I do my share of pulling, too! Okay, in all honesty, maybe it's not a full share of pulling, but I have been towing this rig more frequently in the last few weeks.

It's a great workout. . . legs burning and heart pounding. I highly recommend it for getting back into pre-baby shape!

Pickin' a Winner

Hayden has discovered his nostrils.

He has also discovered that sticking his finger in his nostril elicits laughter from his mother and grandmother.

So it's his new favorite thing to do.

A Classic

Grandma is back and she came bearing gifts (surprise, surprise)! One of these gifts is nearly 30 years old and one that I remember well from my younger days. It's a Fisher-Price instrument set, complete with drum, cymbals, tambourine, maracas, and a harmonica. And get this, it was actually made in the U.S.A.! You don't find that very often these days.

Hayden was instantly making music! Looks like all of those private piano concerts by Dad and nursery rhyme serenades by Mom have created a little musician.

Drums are his current favorite, but he also likes the maracas and cymbals. The harmonica, though, he prefers to be an audience for. When I hand it to him, he looks at it, smiles, and hands it back to me. I'll breathe a few notes and hand it back to him. Then he immediately smiles and waves it back at me. I guess he's just a percussionist at heart!

Smoothie

Last week when Rich got home from work, I mixed up some smoothies for us. Pineapples were on sale at the grocery store for $1, which you just can't beat. So I chopped one up and tossed it in the blender with some yogurt, OJ, a banana, and splash of milk. Rich took a swig of his then set it down to walk up to the mailbox. Hayden eyed a glass with a straw and instantly took an interest. I didn't think he'd like it, but I let him take a sip. He didn't come up for air until he had sucked down half of Rich's smoothie!

So I made another one, just for him. Smoothie and graham crackers. . . now that's a meal!

Hi Mom!

Oh, hey, this is my cup. . .

Mmmmm. . . this is good stuff

(notice the dwindling amount in his cup)

Bottoms up!

Just a boy and his dog

Maggie is such a good dog. From her perspective, this little person that makes all sorts of noise and mess comes into the house. He takes up all the time of the people that used to give her belly rubs and loads of attention. She doesn't always get her daily walk or run anymore. And now, that little person has the nerve to crawl all over her bed, while she's laying in it!

She just takes it all in stride though, patiently watching and occasionally licking him. Good dog!

Brrrrrr

It's cold here today. Like 7 degrees cold. And that's the high temperature! So, I thought I'd share some snow baby pictures that I took on a slightly warmer day. Hayden really doesn't seem to mind the cold, but I thought that single digits was a bit much. So we stayed snuggled up inside today.

I feel the need to set the record straight about my tupperware washing. . . it's not so much the baby slobber that bothers me. It's the fact that baby slobber is a magnet for pet hair, which seems to cover our floor no matter how often I sweep. So, when I pick up the plastic ware after Hayden has been playing with it, there is dog hair on it too. Yuk!

Watching my little guy has been so much fun lately. He really doesn't seem like a baby anymore and I'm almost believing that he'll really be a year old in 2 weeks. I've been thinking of him as "amazin' Hayden" with all his tricks. I'll give you a few examples. . .

~ For a few weeks now, if I say to him, "can you give Mama a hug?" he'll look at me, smile, and lean his head on my chest, giving me the sweetest, most heart melting hug.

~ He's started sharing. Whenever he's playing with something, he'll stop and reach out his arm to give me the toy in his hand. Today, he even wanted to share his pacifier with me! I got him from his crib after his nap (the only time he has his paci) and he took it out of his mouth and moved it right to my mouth, waiting for me to open up and take it.

~ He usually nurses when he wakes up from his nap. For a month or so, when I get him from his crib I've been saying, "do you want to nurse, do you want some milk?" and making the sign for "milk" (opening and closing one fist). When I got him from his crib yesterday, I asked if he wanted milk and before I made the sign, he made it himself! Then he looked at me and smiled, as if to say "hey, I can make this sign!" He's done it after every nap since!

He's such a sweet, clever, generous boy! And he looks mighty cute in his snow gear, if I do say so myself!

Kitchen Helper

Whenever I think about the time I used to spend hanging out at Erin's house, I always picture sweet Sarah rummaging through the tupperware cabinet. I always picture this because Sarah was always in that cabinet.

Hayden finally discovered my tupperware cabinet today and didn't waste a second inspecting every piece of plasticware in there.

I have 2 problems with his discovery. First, I feel the need to wash everything he touches before putting it away. This means alot more dishes for me. And second, the enomorous cabinet also houses some of my necessary-but-not-so-frequently used kitchen appliances: blender, crockpot, fondue pot, wok, pizelle iron, apple peeler-corer-slicer, rice/veggie steamer, and waffle iron. Somehow, these items don't seem like things a baby should be playing with. But I have no where else to put them! So I may--unfortunately--have to shut Hayden out of this new found cabinet of fun with a childlock. I suppose I can ration a few things out for him to play with each day, but I just don't think he'd enjoy it as much if he can't dig it out himself!

The Food Edition

Food has been on everyone's mind lately. For over a month now, if you ask Hayden if he's ready to eat he'll smile, start kicking his feet, and happily grunt that yes he is indeed ready to eat. Now, we don't even have to ask to know he's hungry. . . he's been letting us know that he's ready for a meal by crawling over to the table, pulling himself up, and pawing at his booster seat.

I've been feeling like a big slacker for not posting my recipes of the week in the sidebar. I do apologize and I'm hoping this post will remedy that. I updated it with this week's recipes, and I highly recommend the Butterscotch Blondies. Warning: if you have no self control you better let someone else remove them from the oven. I could have easily polished off half the pan if Rich hadn't been standing right next to me!

So, here's a list--with links--to some of the recipes at the Shertzer household last month:

Easy Dinners:
Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta
Quick Mozzarella Chicken
Tuscan Pork with White Beans -- great crockpot dinner, very flavorful and hearty
Ham and Gruyere-Stuffed Potatoes -- an old standby
Sicilian Chicken -- super fast, very tasty, easy ingredients. . . I'm adding this to our regular rotation
Chicken Paprikash
Carbonnade a la Flamande -- a funny name, yes. . . it's a Belgian Beef Stew with a beer marinade that is slightly sweet and oh so yummy

Some tasty sweets:
Cranberry Coffee Cake
Orange Marmalade French Toast

Our Christmas Eve dinner:
Mixed Salad with Vanilla-Pear Vinaigrette
Crabmeat Ravioli with Stuffed Mushrooms and garlic bread on the side

Christmas morning breakfast:

Blueberry Pecan Scones
Individual Potato-Bacon Frittatas

Christmas dinner:
Roast Turkey Breast with Spinach Stuffing

New Year's Eve dessert:

Pear Galette with Brandied Cranberries and Raisins

And many of you asked about Rich's Birthday dinner. It was from the William's Sonoma Complete Entertaining Cookbook and was White Fish with Moroccan Marinade and a side of Moroccan Vegetables and couscous.

And a final little tasty morsel for this week: Black Bean Soup. I found the recipe in Parent's Magazine and thought it would be good to make for playgroup. It was easy, nutritious, and Hayden and the other kids loved it. The beauty of Hayden being in a playgroup with kids that are just a bit older than him is that I have some very experienced Momma's to get tips and advice from. One such tip is letting the kids use a straw to "drink" soup. It works like a charm and is much less messy! I couldn't find the soup recipe online, so here you go:

Black Bean Soup

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cans (19 oz each) black beans, undrained

1 box (32 oz) low sodium chicken broth

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Saute onions and cinnamon for 6 minutes. Stir in beans, broth, and sweet potato. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Let soup cool for 5 min, puree in a blender in smaller batches until smooth.

Mmmmmm. . . all this food talk is making me hungry. I'm off to have a snack!

A Birthday Party

A feast. . .

a cake. . .

some candles. . .

and a gift. . .

It's a day-by-day calendar for 2008 of 358 reasons that I love Rich. 358, because it was already January 9th, so I skipped out on 8 reasons for the first 8 days of the year! Let me just say that 358 is a lot. A lot more than I thought it would be when I started the project! I hope it made a memorable birthday for him!

Our first January birthday

Today is my sweetie's birthday! I want to send him the happiest of all wishes for a wonderful day! We're celebrating tonight with a special dinner at home.

I must confess that I feel a little bit guilty because I've been thinking about that other January birthday, the big 1, that's coming at the end of the month, for probably the last 6 weeks. And it was only this past Sunday that I asked Rich what he wanted to do to make his day special. And it was only this past Sunday that I decided to do a really cool birthday surprise project. I don't want to spoil it for him, so maybe I'll post some pics of his gift once he opens it (stay tuned). But I've spent about 14 hours over the last 2 1/2 days working on it. . . which is why I haven't been on the computer much in the past few days and my house looks like a disaster! I'm finding that an 11 month old leaves quite the trail of disarry as he crawls around the house! It's very taxing keep up with it all. . .

At any rate, on Rich's big day, I thought I'd share just a few more of Shelley's pictures. . . here's Dad and his boy:

Happy Birthday, Rich, we love you so much!

Busy Boy

I've been calling Hayden my "busy boy" quite a bit lately. . . it seems he's always into something. And he undertakes his explorations with the utmost sense of responsibility and diligence. You can see the determination on his face as he spots his target, hurrily crawls over, sets up his position, and goes about his research.

After a few minutes, he's off to check out something new. . . oh, and I must mention that his explorations involve not only sight and touch, but taste.

And then he's off yet again, crawling right past me flashing me a look that says, "watch out Mom, I've got work to do. . ."

11 Months

As we welcome in the new year, we also welcome Hayden's final month before turning 1 year old. I know I always say that it gets better and better and that it sure does go fast, but these sentiments are as true this month as any.

His communication and mobility increased exponentially this month! He waves with purpose and just did his first baby sign (for "more" food, go figure!) a few days ago. I'm certain that he understands the meaning of several words: eat, nap, more, all done, milk, water, book, his name, and bath. I'm sure the list is longer, those are just the ones I can really see his reaction to. He also verbally mimics us. . . if we tell him to say "night, night," he will. Or if we cheer for him, he'll start hootin' and hollerin'. It's amazingly cute! On the mobility side, he is a full-fledged crawler now, pulls up onto everything, and loves to sit on his knees.

The pets still bring him joy and he laughs when he spies a cat creep across a room or as he is crawling toward the sleeping dog. He is also playing with more advanced toys, intently figuring out how things work, and playing with a purpose like rolling little cars on the floor. He still loves books and he loves turning to the next page for me to read it to him. Lift-the-flap books are really hit. . . he'll find the flap, lift it up, look at what is hiding underneath, flip it back down, then turn to the next page.

And of course, we love him more and more each day! Happy 11 months, little man!